Dr Brian Sloan Robinson College Co-Ownership A. The Essential Nature of Co-Ownership and the Trust of Land 1. Concurrent versus Successive Co-Ownership E Cooke, Land Law (3rd edn OUP, 2020), successive joint ownership is where more than one person holds an ownership right, but ownership is planned over time and not all have interests in possession. The typical case is when land is left to A for life, with remainder to B in fee simple. This type of settlement, with its many variants, used to account for the ownership of most of the land in this country, whereas today it is very unusual S Bridge et al, Megarry & Wade: The Law of Real Property Of much more importance [than successive co-ownership] in modern land law is where two or more persons are entitled to the simultaneous enjoyment of land. This may include couples in a relationship occupying the family home, property purchased as an investment, commercial business property or, indeed, land held for any purpose where there is more than one person seeking to enjoy the present rights of ownership. This is concurrent co-ownership' 2. Introduction to the Trust of Land (i) Essential Nature A trust in land is where someone else has administrative control and the beneficial ownership (all the proceeds from the land) is another's right. This can be an overriding interest per sch.3 if there is reasonably discoverable actual occupation of the land by the beneficial owner. . For more detail on Equity and the trust in general, see, eg, G Virgo, The Principles of Equity & Trusts (4th edn OUP, 2020), chs 1-3. (ii) The Significance and Advantages of the Trust of Land Co-ownership = 2 people etc having individual proprietary ownership rights. Law of Property Act 1925, ss 34-36 and Trusts of Land & Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (T(o)LATA) is always subject to a trust. All forms of co-ownership mean a trust arises. C Bevan, Land Law all forms of shared ownership must operate behind a trust. This means that wherever there is co-ownership, a trust will arise. E Cooke, Land Law whenever there is joint ownership of land, there is a trust, and that this is largely a way of keeping the title to property tidy for the sake of purchasers. Trustee Act 1925, s 34(2) In the case of settlements and dispositions creating trusts of land (a) the number of trustees thereof shall not in any case exceed four, and where more than four persons are named as such trustees, the four first named (who are able and willing to act) shall alone be the trustees, and the other persons named shall not be trustees ... (iii) The Significance of Overreaching Law of Property Act 1925, ss 2, 27 governs overreaching. ... the scheme of the Act is to enable a purchaser or mortgagee, so long as he pays the proceeds of sale or other capital moneys to not less than two trustees or to a trust corporation, to accept a